BELVIDERE — Forty-four students from Sydney, Australia packed their instruments, boarded a plane and arrived in America earlier this week for the first leg of their three-week tour of the east coast.

The first stop on their tour was Belvidere High School, where the group performed once during the day and again last night with Belvidere’s own students in a cross-cultural instrumental holiday concert.

Next, the group of young Australians will travel to Lincoln High School in New York. From there they will make their way to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, New Hampshire and back to New York.

While in New York today, the group plans to visit Rockefeller Center, Grand Central and Times Square.

Jesse Campbell, 14, plays clarinet in the band. He’s never been in the United States, and he was surprised at how cheap the prices were compared to Australia. Also, the toilet flushes in the opposite direction, and, differences in measurements took some getting used to. But also, “it’s a different family lifestyle,” Campbell said.

Campbell stayed with the Wieder family in Harmony Township. Michelle Wieder says she wished the group could have stayed longer.

Dominic McCarthy, 16, plays the trumpet. He’s also never been to America. “It’s pretty amazing, the whole thing,” he said. “It’s just larger than life. Especially if you come from Sydney." He hopes to get some Christmas shopping done while he’s in New York, he said.

For students from Waverley College, an all-boys Catholic school with students equivalent in age to American high school students, this is summer vacation. The students attended some classes, but took time to see some of what New Jersey has to offer. The group visited Mackey’s Orchard and Wyckoff’s Christmas Tree Farm.

Also, they planned to perform with the concert band, jazz band and trans-Belviderian ensemble from Belvidere High School. The two groups will perform together for one number. The performance of the instrumental band from Belvidere included original arrangements, like mash-ups of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” with “God Rest You, Merry Gentelmen” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” said Charlie Zetterstrom, instrumental director at the high school.

There are over 100 kids involved Belvidere’s program, Zetterstrom said. “I’m running a hotel right now and putting on a concert at the same time,” Zetterstrom said.

Kyle Novis, a senior at Belvidere High School and drum major, said it was “interesting” to talk to the students from Sydney. “There are some little things that they had never had that I sort of take for granted, like eggnog and Hershey kisses.”